The Blue Jays have selected the contract of top pitching prospect Ricky Tiedemann, per a club announcement. They’re now up to 38 players on the 40-man roster.
Tiedemann, 23, didn’t pitch this past season while recovering from Tommy John surgery performed in July 2024. Be that as it may, given how highly regarded the 2021 third-rounder had become prior to that injury, he’d surely have been scooped up by a non-contending club in next month’s Rule 5 Draft.
Though Tiedemann still hasn’t topped the 78 2/3 innings he pitched in his first full professional season back in 2022, he ranked among the game’s top 100 prospects at Baseball America in each of the past three offseasons. He’s pitched to a career 3.02 ERA in the minors and fanned a gargantuan 39.6% of his opponents. His 11.9% walk rate clearly needs refinement, but the 6’4″, 220-pound Tiedemann carries substantial upside as a potential playoff-caliber starter or a late-game reliever with possibly elite bat-missing abilities.